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Sunday, 8 February 2009

Saturday at home

MrL trolled off to his annual Beer Festival outing, so I stayed at home for the day. Usually, Saturday morning is spent out; as a non-driver, it's the time we go and buy animal feed, bales of straw, visit the garden centres, that sort of thing. So - it was nice yesterday to spend some time at home on a Saturday - a completely different atmosphere and feeling to other days in teh week. Beautiful weather, so teh washing went out, and theh ducks and chickens spent the day scratching around and sunbathing, despite the patches of snow still lying around.

Little fintpots in the snow - fintpots is a lovely word invented by Bean when she was very small , and we all use it now LOL

This is one of my little Light Sussex bantams, Margo; her sister is Barbara, but she wasn't around when the camera was out!

Pile of dogwood trimmings and prunings weathering, ready for basket making. Another week or so should see them fit for use, I hope. I love the colour of these, and want to plant some different varieites this year so I can add other colours into the baskets.

Apart from in and out to the washing line etc, I spent the majority of the day in teh kitchen baking and cooking - two carrot cakes, two big gingerbreads, two trays of shortbread, 1 1/2 dozen buttermilk scones, a murgh makhani (butter chicken curry) for tea, bit pot of rice, boiled potatoes for hash and two trays of baked potatoes to use teh rest of the ehat in the oven before I turned it back down. I also had a little wine festival of my own, in among the housework, and got some knitting on one of the shawls done, plus completed one dishcloth and knitted another one - these two destined for MrL's Valentine Day present - pics here:

2 comments:

Do yo have a carrot cake recipe that actually works? - I've tried four and they've all been raw in the middle, despite me extending the cooking times. Of course I could just be a really bad baker, lol!!

Welcome to my blog

Open on my lap

This is an uncopyrighted blog!

I'm happy to share freely whatever is posted up here on Unbought Delicacies - feel free to copy and share recipes, patterns, my pictures, tips, etc - I really don't mind, and like to think that my advice and experiences learned over the years is being shared with a wider audience. If there's anything I don't want copied or shared, it won't appear here.

This is me............

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,The shelter of a roof above my head,And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.I have found such joy in things that fillMy quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,A potted plant upon my window sill,A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,And books I long have loved beside me there.Oh, I have found such joys I wish I mightTell every woman who goes seeking farFor some elusive, feverish delight,That very close to home the great joys are:The elemental things- old as the race,Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Currently on the needles

Autumn leaves scarf

Crochet blanket/s

Shetland Fairisle kits

Dishcloths

Wartime Farm Fairisle top

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.